Dear Diary,
I got several pictures of Bob today. Most of them were taken at Dottie Lamour’s wedding. Two showed Bob and Jimmy Cagney trying to out-dance each other at an army camp.
There was an article in one of the magazines about a recent meeting of the Actors Guild, where several stars, including Bob, Kay Kyser, and Jimmy Cagney, played it on some stars who have shirked their duty in regard to the entertainment of the armed forces. To quote part of the article: It isn’t an easy thing,” Bob Hope explained, “to tour the camps, especially if you’re a fellow. I know how it is. On our Alaskan tour, the day after I came so near to death up there that I don’t want to think about it, some boy from the audience heckled, “Yeah, you’d be funnier, fellow, if you were in a uniform.” It hurts. And, what’s more, you can’t explain about age or family or why you’re not in – mostly because the government says No. You gotta take it. But that’s only one fellow amount thousands who will never forget what you’ve tried to do. So please, please, friends, forget self and pride and inconvenience and get out there and do your stuff.
Dear Diary,
Camp Wheeler, Georgia, played host to Bob tonight. Tony Romano, Bob’s guitarist who went with him to Alaska, and was here with him last month is now leading the band in Skinnay Ennis’s place. As I had expected, Colonna took over the spot usually devoted to Skinnay’s song, and Bob didn’t sing a note, except for this them song in the usual spot. The Thin Man leaves a bigger vacancy in the program that I had expected.
Once Vera Vague came rushing in almost bursting with news. “Do you remember that soldier who kissed me last night?” she asked. “Well, guess what he did today.” Bob: “What? regain consciousness?” Vera replied, “Yes. Now why don’t you?” Oh yes, they’re just one big happy family — you’ve heard of the cat family, haven’t you? “
Dear Diary,
In Bob Burns’ Arkansas Traveler play tonight the Traveler was trying to find quarters for three WAVES on leave. He was asking them where they were from, and one of them answered, “Pomona.” Bob B. said, “Pomona?” She said, “Yes, haven’t you ever heard of it?” He replied, “Yes, I’ve heard Bob Hope talk about it.” I thought by now everyone had forgotten the way Bob used to make fun of Pomona. He hasn’t done it since his trip to Alaska, where, on a very precarious plane journey, he discovered the pilot was from Pomona! I’m not sure, but I imagine that Bob pledged to stop making fun of that little California town, at least for the duration.
Dear Diary,
The following article was in the paper today: “Bob Hope will include North Africa in his tour of the United States, England, and Ireland. Bob will be away from Hollywood four months. When he returns he will write a book on his experiences in Army camps (this will include his trip to Alaska.). It will be a little more serious than his maiden effort at literature, They Got Me Covered, which circulated at the rate of something like three million copies. Only the Bible can top it.”
I hope this next book’s longer.
Dear Diary,
I found out today why Bing and Bob didn’t have any scenes together in “Star – Spangled Rhythm.” The picture was being made while Bob and his gang were in Alaska. When they got back, Bob did his part, so naturally, he and Bing couldn’t have been in any scenes together. That’s the only thing the picture needed as far as I’m concerned. One of those routines they did on the Victory Caravan would have made the picture an epic, especially the act of the Presidents of the Fitch and Vitalis companies meeting on the street.
Dear Diary,
I practically went bankrupt today buying magazines that had something about Bob Hope in them. There were six magazines that came out today that were crammed full of stuff and things about Bob. There were three articles about Bob’s Alaskan tour. (Those things are coming a little thick and fact these days.) Two of these articles were cute and sounded just like Bob. The third wasn’t so hot. It didn’t even sound as if Bob had been interviewed by the author, and for that matter, he probably hadn’t.
Dear Diary,
I got another article about Bob Hope and his Alaskan tour today. In the same magazine there was a full page picture of Bob that almost floored me. It was a colored picture and whoever colored it made just a slight mistake. His eyes were blue! Can you imagine! Bob Hope of the beautiful dark brown eyes—the eyes that were described in Life Magazine once as inviting every woman in the audience for a secret rendezvous after the show. And some dope gives him blue eyes over night, just like that!
Dear Diary,
Bob Hope and Virginia Bruce were on the Lux Radio Theater tonight in “My Favorite Blonde.” In the picture Bob told Mady that when she was “changing the map, move Alaska over a couple of inches to kinda’ balance things up.” On the radio he said, “You know Texas, the Panhandle Stage? Well, when you’re changing the map, lift up the handle. I want to see what’s cooking.” Another thing he added that wasn’t in the picture occurred when he had pretended to swallow the scorpion pin. The doctor was going to operate but Bob said, “Hey, wait a minute. Don’t fiddle with my middle. I didn’t really swallow it.” The play was just plodding sadly along until about the first of the second act. Bob was supposed to say, “I ate the dogfood myself just for the labels.” He left off “food” by mistake and after that he really struck his stride.
Dear Diary,
John Rosenfield devoted about half his column today to “entertainment heroes of the present war.” Guess who he was talking about? Bob Hope, of course! He said the airplane there were in almost crashed near Anchorage, Alaska, and they were all ready to jump out by parachute. But the pilots managed to land in an emergency landing field with the aid of anti-aircraft lights. When they landed, Bob looked around for the usual station wagon, and there was nothing but an ambulance. It seems the ground crew had exspected a crack-up. Bob may get quite a lot of praise for his work, but I doubt if he gets half enough.
Dear Diary,
Bob Hope’s picture was on the cover of the Movie-Radio Guide today. It’s a nice portrait of him, and inside the cover there are two pages of pictures taken on Bob’s Alaskan trip., There was only one picture actually taken in Alaska. The rest were of his preparations for the trip. In one he’s kissing Dolores good-bye at the airport. In another he’s packing a big box with equipment for the trip. The last one on the second page is from “They Got Me Covered,” although I don’t quite get the connection of the two subjects. The picture on the cover is one of my best.
Dear Diary,
I got several pictures of Bob Hope today. One of them was from “The Road to Morrocco,” as a lot of pictures of him are recently, one was from “Star-Spangled Rhythm,” and the other was of a Hollywood premiere. The caption under the last picture said, “Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour co-star on our side of the screen for a change.
From Movie-Radio Guide: “Bob Hope, while being fingerprinted for his Alaskan tour, was asked what he would do if the Japs broke in during one of his performances. ‘Why, it’s a cinch – I’d keep right on clowning. My act has been known to knock ’em dead!'”
Dear Diary,
The paper said today that Bob Hope did an average of seven shows a day on his nine day tour of the Alaskan outposts. I wonder how he’ll do on the second trip, which begins today. Or is that a silly question. Naturally, he’ll do as many a day as he did the first time, if not more.
There was an article in the new Movie – Radio Guide today about Bob Hope and his trip to Alaska. He refused to let the trip be exploited and overly publicized, because, he said, this is no time for fanfare and publicity. He simply says that there’s a job to be done and he’s doing it. More power to you, Bob!
Dear Diary,
Since I’ve thought about nothing else for the last thirteen weeks, I don’t have to say that Bob Hope came back on the air tonight. He has just returned from an Alaskan tour of army camps, and he said tonight that he is going to leave in the morning for the Aluetian Islands, to entertain some of the boys he missed on the first trip. After he had said good-bye and signed off tonight, I heard him throwing some cracks at the solders in the audience, and it will probably go on for hours. From all I’ve heard about those army camp shows of his, he usually carries on as long as the boys want him to. Bob’s guest tonight was a soldier, and he sounded awfully cute.
Dear Diary,
Just two years ago today, I saw Bob Hope in person for the first time. That was eight o’clock, Friday, September twentieth, 1940. The place, of course, was the Majestic Theater, and the event was the premiere of “The Westerner.”
Jimmie Fidler said tonight that Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, and Frances Langford have not shown up in Seattle, where they were due early this morning. They were supposed to fly there from Alaska, give theTuesday night show, and return to Los Angeles later. Fidler said that if they don’t show up by Tuesday night, Edgar Bergen will substitute for Bob until he does return. Bergen recently returned from Alaska.
Dear Diary,
I got a picture of Bob Hope and the Mrs. today. There were talking to Dorothy Lamour at a dimout premiere in Hollywood. It was taken just before Bob left for Alaska.
I saw Phil Harris and his show for the fourth, and probably the last time today. Of course, I may have been imagining things, but once when Phil winked one of those superior grade winks of his, I could have sworn he was looking right at me. Well, I told you I had an imagination. I still think he was, though.
Dear Diary,
I saw in the Herald today that Bob Hope left for Alaska this A.M. He was supposed to have left the day before yesterday, but he had to finish work on “The Got Me Covered.” He spent the day yesterday beeing fingerprinted for some special passes he needs to visit the bases. Can you imagine Bob Hope having to be identified by fingerprints. They could have him was through a door with his hands stretched out before him, and if his nose got through the door before his hands, then it’s Bob Hope.
I spent the day in bed with a cold.
Dear Diary,
There was an article in the papers today about Bob Hope’s trip to Alaska. According to the papers, he will start September the eighth, and be back in time for his first broadcast September the twenty-second. It stated that Bob is leaving just after the return of Edgar Bergen, who did fifty-one shows in eleven days. I’ll bet my bottom dollar that Bob will do more shows than that, in comparison to the number of days spent. Bergen’s record is less than five shows a day, and once Bob gets started, I’ll bet it will be a job to stop him after five a day.
Dear Diary,
Hedda Hopper said today that Bing Crosby will fly to Washington soon, in order to give a command performance for the armed forces via short wave. He and the missus will be presented to President and Mrs. Roosevelt. After that he will meet Bob Hope and they will do another golf tour together for the government. What puzzles me is the fact that Bob is supposed to go to Alaska before his show starts in September. I wonder how is going to do with the Alaskan tour and the golf tour in time. The only way I can think of is to make the golf tour after his show starts and take it with him like he did on the Victory Caravan.
Dear Diary,
Hedda Hopper said today that Bob Hope will be the next star to tour Alaskan army, navy, and marine posts. Among those who have already made the tour are Al Jolson and Edgar Bergen. It’s reported that Bob has already toured practically every major camp in the United States, so I guess Alaska is the logical place to go. That is, unless he plays the camps again, which probably wouldn’t make them mad!
I saw in the Movie-Radio Guide today that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope have been made honorary life members of the Professional Golfers Association for their work in raising over $100,000 for the Red Cross and Army and Navy Relief. They are the only two people in show business to receive the honor.
Muriel Windham's Diary 